Arch-ing ARM: Running Arch Linux On The NVIDIA Tegra 2

The CompuLab Trim-Slice is quite an interesting dual-core ARM Tegra 2 device. This nettop/desktop-oriented system ships with Ubuntu 11.04 by default, but it is also well supported by Arch Linux. In this article are some tests of the dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 1.0GHz system running under Arch.

In communicating with CompuLab about the Trim-Slice Linux support, they mentioned a variety of distributions are working on support for this NVIDIA Tegra 2 device. In fact, on the Trim-Slice Wiki is a listing of the distributions that are on there for working on Trim-Slice support -- either official support or community-spawned projects. The list at the time of publishing includes Android, Arch Linux, Chromium OS, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Java SE, MeeGo, and XBMC.

While Fedora and Ubuntu work on the compact ARM system -- and Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" for ARM is what ships -- CompuLab ended up recommending Arch Linux. Igor Vaisbein, the Trim-Slice project manager at CompuLab, had a few words to say to Phoronix about the different Linux distributions supported.